Sungjae Im runs the table in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS – Sungjae Im turned a shootout into a one-man show Sunday in Las Vegas, running the tables with seven birdies in eight holes around the turn for a 9-under 62 and a four-shot victory in the Shriners Children’s Open.
Im was among four players who had at least a share of the lead on the front nine of the TPC Summerlin on an ideal day of scoring with little wind.
When he holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the sixth hole, the third-toughest on the course, to tie for the lead, the 23year-old South Korean was just getting started.
He closed out the front nine with a simple up-and-down short of the green on the par-5 ninth to take the lead, then ran off four more birdies, the best of that lot on No. 10 when he went from a fairway bunker to 25 feet and made the putt.
No one else could keep up. His strongest challenger, former Oklahoma State standout Matthew Wolff, rolled in an 18-foot birdie on the ninth to keep pace. He had two misses off the tee that cost him.
Wolff had to pitch out to the fairway from high grass right of the 10th, leading to his first bogey. And he was deep in the bunker on the par-5 13th and barely got it out into a nasty lie, advanced that only about 90 yards and took bogey that felt much worse.
Wolff recovered with two birdies for a 68 – his 12th round in the 60s in as many tries at the TPC Summerlin – and was runner-up.
Rory Sabbatini, the Olympic silver medalist from Slovakia, shot 28 on the front nine and was briefly tied for the lead. He could only manage even par on the back nine for a 64 and tied for third with Marc Leishman (63) and 54-hole leader Adam Schenk (70).
Im had the best closing round by a winner in Las Vegas since Smylie Kaufman shot 61 in 2016. He won for the second time on the PGA Tour following his Honda Classic title in 2020, two weeks before the pandemic shut down golf.
“It was very tough to get my first win but I felt like the second one was harder and harder,” Im said. “But I kept my patience. I tried to stay composed and I’m glad it came.”
LPGA Tour
WEST CALDWELL, N.J. – Jin Young Ko finished off a wire-to-wire victory in the Cognizant Founders Cup with her 14th consecutive round in the 60s that matched a 16-year record held by Annika Sorenstam.
Even in a steady rain at Mountain Ridge, the 26-year-old South Korean star made it look easy. She closed with a 5-under 66 for a four-shot victory over Caroline Masson of Germany.
Ko started the final round with a four-shot lead and no one got closer than three all day. The tournament all but decided, it was then a matter of how she finished. Ko ran off four birdies in a five-hole stretch in the middle of the back nine and finished at 18-under 266.
It was her 14th consecutive round in the 60s dating to a 69 in the final round of the Evian Championship. That ties the mark Sorenstam set in the middle of her 10-win season in 2005.
PGA Tour Champions
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Phil Mickelson won for the third time in four career starts on the PGA Tour Champions, closing with a 4-under 68 for a two-shot victory in the Constellation Furyk & Friends.
The 51-year-old Mickelson won for the first time since his out-of-nowhere triumph at the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in May for his sixth career major title.